1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle control device having a follow-up system to have the vehicle to travel as following a preceding vehicle.
2. Related Art
Recently, there has been proposed, as a driving support device, a device having a cruise control system which is a follow-up system to control a vehicle to recognize a preceding vehicle using a millimeter-wave radar, an infrared laser radar, a stereo camera, a monocular camera or the like and automatically follow the preceding vehicle. This type of cruise control system can be switched between an active state and an inactive state according to a switch operation by a driver. Further, there has been proposed a control device that switches the cruise control system to the inactive state when a brake pedal is pressed by the driver even if the driver does not perform the switch operation (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2008-45637 and JP-A No. 2009-126308).
When the cruise control system is active, target drive force is set based on an inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle. On the other hand, when the cruise control system is inactive, target drive force is set based on a pressing amount of the accelerator pedal and the like. In other words, different values of target drive force are set when the cruise control system is in the active state and the inactive state and it is thus required to switch the target drive force of the vehicle when the driver stops the cruise control system by operating the switch, the brake and the like. However, travel conditions of the vehicle may be significantly different between the case in which the cruise control system is stepped by driver's switch operation and the case in which the cruise control system is stopped by driver's brake operation. Thus, if the target drive force is switched in the same manner both when the cruise control system is stopped by switch operation and brake operation, the driver may feel discomfort.